labour aristocracy
Paul Le Blanc: Explorations in plain Marxism: revolutionary theory, practical action
"For many developing intellectually in the
The problem of relative privilege in the working class
"Waterside worker', by Noel Counihan, 1963.
By Chris Slee
March 18, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- In his article entitled “Is there a labour aristocracy in Australia?” (published in the Socialist Alternative magazine, Marxist Left Review) Tom Bramble criticises the concept of the “labour aristocracy” on a number of grounds.
Doug Lorimer's introduction to 'Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism'
Introduction by Doug Lorimer
Alex Callinicos on imperialism, two reviews
Review by Barry Healy
Imperialism and Global Political Economy
By Alex Callinicos
Polity, 2009
227 pages
October 2, 2010 -- The topic of “imperialism” greatly occupied the minds of late-19th and early-20th century socialists. Some of the tradition’s greatest minds toiled mightily to discern the fundamental changes in capitalism that were occurring before their eyes.
Capitalism, as analysed by Karl Marx, had grown fat in its European heartland through the ruthless exploitation of colonies and the brutal factory system in its coal dark cities. But suddenly new phenomena started to appear in the late 1800s.
Banking capital moved from being a support for industrial capital, first merging into and then dominating manufacturing. This agglomeration of money power created massive industrial complexes, like Germany’s famous Krupps steelworks.
The colossal scale of these industrial works dwarfed human beings.
The labour aristocracy and opportunism in the history of Australian working-class politics
By Jonathan Strauss
The theory of the labour aristocracy argues that opportunism in the working class has a material basis. Such class-collaborationist politics express the interests of a relatively privileged stratum of workers who receive benefits supported by monopoly superprofits. Karl Marx and, especially, Frederick Engels, first developed this theory. It is most closely associated with V.I. Lenin, however, for whom it became “the pivot of the tactics in the labour movement that are dictated by the objective conditions of the imperialist era”.[1]
Towards a historical materialist history of Australian working-class politics
By Jonathan Strauss
The theory of the labour aristocracy argues that opportunism in the working class has a material basis. Class-collaborationist politics express the interests of a relatively privileged stratum of workers supported in their benefits by monopoly superprofits. Karl Marx and, especially, Frederick Engels, first developed this theory. It is most closely associated with V.I. Lenin, however, for whom it became “the pivot of the tactics in the labour movement that are dictated by the objective conditions of the imperialist era”.1
The labour aristocracy and working-class politics
By Jonathan Strauss
Contents
Dimensions of the composition of the labour aristocracy
Skilled workers in the labour aristocracy
The bureaucratisation of the labour apparatus and opportunism
The labour apparatus and the labour bureaucracy
The labour aristocracy and the labour bureaucracy
The labour aristocracy and the `lower strata' of the working class
Opportunism and preparation of the proletariat for revolution
Proletarian tactics under the domination of monopolising capitals